Legumes (family Fabaceae) are globally important crops due to their nitrogen fixing ability.Papilionoideae, the best-studied subfamily, have undergone a Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) around 59 million years ago. Recent study found varying WGD ages in subfamilies Mimosoideae and Caesalpinioideae and proposed multiple occurrences of WGD across the family based on gene duplication patterns. Despite that, the genome evolution of legume ancestor into modern legumes after the WGD is not well-understood. We aimed to study genome evolution at the subfamily level using gene-based linkage maps for Acacia auriculiformis and A. mangium (Mimosoideae) and we discovered evidence for a WGD event in Acacia. In additional to synonymous substitution rate (Ks) analysis, we used ancestral karyotype prediction to further corroborate this WGD and elucidate underlying mechanisms of karyotype evolution in Fabaceae.Using publicly available transcriptome resources from 25 species across the family Fabaceae and 2 species from order Fabales, we found that the variations in WGD ages highly correlate (R=0.8606, p-value<0.00001) with the divergence age of Vitis vinifera as an outgroup. If the variation of Ks is corrected, the age of WGDs of the family Fabaceae should be the same and therefore, parsimony would favour a single WGD near the base of Fabaceae over multiple independent WGDs across Fabaceae. In addition, we demonstrated that genome comparison of Papilionoideae with other subfamily provide important insights in understanding genome evolution in legumes.

A fraction of larval Taenia hydatigena cyst fluid was shown to have high sensitivity and specificity in the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of bovine antibodies to the heterologous parasite Taenia saginata. This antigenically active lipoprotein fraction was isolated by ultracentrifugal density flotation using either ammonium sulfate (specific gravity = 1.231 g per ml) or NaCl/KBr (specific gravity = 1.225 g per ml), followed by ion-exchange chromatography. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) indicated that this fraction was composed of high molecular weight (65,000 to 77,000 Mr) and low molecular weight (9,500 to 16,000 Mr) proteins. Electrophoresis under non-denaturing conditions in either acrylamide (5%) or agarose (1%) resulted in 1 major diffuse band staining for both protein and lipid. The high and low molecular weight proteins observed on SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions could not be resolved by gel filtration chromatography and emerged as a single lipoprotein peak. This T. hydatigena cyst fluid fraction appears promising as a diagnostic reagent in the ELISA for bovine cysticercosis.

In search of a primate model to study problems in human toxoplasmosis, 10 seronegative Macaco arctoides ( = M. speciosa) females were inoculated subcutaneously, intravenously, or orally with either the RH or C56 strain of Toxoplasma gondii. Susceptibility of inoculated animals was shown by rising dye test titers, with fever, parasitemia, and some serum enzyme changes during the acute phase. Chronic infections which followed were detectable by persistent dye test titers and intermittent lymphadenopathy, and proved by isolations of parasites from heart and/or brain tissues at least 30 weeks after inoculation. These findings showed that the responses to toxoplasmosis of this species of monkey paralleled those of man, indicating its suitability as a model.